Developers and their creativity is what allows consumers to utilize their technology in new and innovative ways. But, to be able to do this, developers need cash and sometimes, lots of it.

At an Imagine Cup press conference, Walid Abu-Hadba, Corporate Vice President of Developer & Platform Evangelism Group, took the stage to talk about fostering developer communities to create innovative and self-sustaining applications to help provide developers the cash that they need to continue with their work.

In an honest, but fair statement, he assessed that developers create applications to make money. When developers can make money, this allows them to drive their social agenda. You can see a bit more of the statement in the video of Walid above.

For developers, an idea is only as good as the implementation. While there are certainly nightly and weekend warriors, those who can dedicate all of their resources to one project have a better chance at creating a well-received application than those developers who have split agendas.

The press conference was part of the kick-off for Imagine Cup 2012 where Microsoft and students from around the world will be showcasing their game-changing products for everyone to see.